Join the (Secret) Jewelry Club

As the worlds of art and jewelry collide, discover
how easy it is to join a select band of collectors who own–and wear–mini masterpieces.

ENLARGE

Chinese artist Yi Zhou and one of her creations from her Pineapple Collection for the bespoke retailer CoutureLab.
GiftLab.com

By

Jemima Sissons

Updated April 25, 2013 4:14 p.m. ET

TUCKED IN A London gallery at the back of Ben Brown Fine Arts on Mayfair's prestigious Cork Street, a Man Ray is displayed casually next to a Sam Taylor-Wood. This is the Louisa Guinness Gallery, where Damien Hirst shares a space with an unusually Lilliputian Anish Kapoor, and a Ron Arad piece sits elegantly in the mix. They are all original, and yet one could start collecting them for €3,000 ($3,900) or less.

When Artists Become Jewelers

These aren't sculptures or paintings; Louisa Guinness deals solely in jewelry. As well as selling works by 20th-century artists such as Man Ray, Alexander Calder and Keith Haring, Ms. Guinness also commissions contemporary artists to design for her.

The gallery's customers are either avid followers of a certain name who wish to increase their collection, or, conversely, are those who cannot afford a full-size work and this is a creative way of obtaining a piece by a particular artist. Increasingly, the worlds of art and jewelry are blurring. As well as artists creating mini masterpieces in jewelry, there are also fine jewelers—Bulgari, Boucheron and Gripoix, to name but three—collaborating with artists to create unique partnerships.

‘As well as artists creating mini masterpieces in jewelry, there are also fine jewelers collaborating with artists to create unique partnerships.’

Esther de Beaucé opened her Galerie MiniMasterpiece in Paris last year, selling pieces by contemporary artists, including Korean painter and sculptor Lee Ufan and Frenchman Laurent Baude. Ms. de Beaucé observes that there is a growing interest in the work of the artists from outside the art world: "Most of the customers are art collectors; however, more and more women coming to me work in fashion and are not connected to art. They want to wear something different."

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Rome-born Elisabetta Cipriani has a gallery in London's Heddon Street, filled with unusual and one-off jewelry pieces made by artists, including kinetic necklaces by Carlos Cruz-Diez of Venezuela and a beautiful fossil ring by Rebecca Horn of Germany.

But do people actually wear these pieces? Didier Haspeslagh, whose London shop sells original pieces by artists from Georges Braque to Ettore Sottsass, says they are safer than wearing the equivalent in diamonds. "Everybody who buys the pieces wears them," Mr. Haspeslagh says. "The average person in the street doesn't know what one is worth; it is like a secret club and only other club members will recognize what you are wearing."

Yet while these collaborations are starting with the artist first, many fine jewelers have long collaborated with artists to create unique ranges. French couture jewelers Gripoix—who have made jewelry for a pantheon of designers, from Balenciaga to Louis Vuitton and Chanel—recently collaborated with Chinese artist Yi Zhou. Based on the shape of a pineapple, the collection—which was commissioned by bespoke retailer CoutureLab—consists of nine pieces, including a hairpin and cufflinks. The pieces were designed in China in Ms. Zhou's studio and made into 3-D models, before being finished in Gripoix's workshop in France in melted glass and plated gold.

ENLARGE

Anish Kapoor's version of Bulgari's renowned B.zero1 ring.

Bulgari has teamed up in recent years with the likes of Mr. Kapoor to create versions of some of the jewelry house's iconic pieces, such as his pink gold and steel version of the B.zero1 ring.

Boucheron, too, has long had an association with artists—and is working with the Contemporary Art Society to raise funds and awareness for young artists.

For many artists, such as Britain's Conrad Shawcross, known for his vast kinetic sculptures, making jewelry adds another dimension to their work. In collaboration with Louisa Guinness, this year he is bringing out a set of seven bracelets based on a harmonic sequence, to be worn on different days of the week. "When I make 3-D prints, I often see them as wearable things, something that would be really nice as jewelry," says Mr. Shawcross. "Yet making these pieces, it definitely still feels like I am making a work of art."

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